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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24218587">Alone Together</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontwatchmechange/pseuds/dontwatchmechange'>dontwatchmechange</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Trans Female Character, it's luna</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:14:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,034</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24218587</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontwatchmechange/pseuds/dontwatchmechange</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's 1994, and Luna Lovegood has just come out as transgender. Ginny Weasley knows what it's like to be an outcast.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>59</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Luna's a Nice Name</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Things weren’t as they should be for Paraxenos Lovegood. He’d felt it his whole last two years at Hogwarts, though if he really thought about it, he’d felt it long before that. He hadn’t felt like he belonged in the boys’ dormitory; for that matter, the trip stairs that kept girls from entering the boys’ dormitories had started to feel harder to climb. He envied the way the girls had started turning into women, their hair long, their heights short, their voices not cracking every other sentence. He didn’t like being called “he”, in the end, so he - no, she - was going to stop.</p>
<p>Yes, she was.</p>
<p>Well, if she was going to be a girl, her first order of business was writing to the headmaster, who had recently been returned to his post.</p>
<p>Dear Professor Dumbledore, she wrote. I have made an error in submitting my information to the school. I had previously indicated that I was a boy. This is incorrect. Please change my lodgings accordingly. Sincerely --</p>
<p>Paraxenos didn’t sound terribly feminine. She did what she always did when she needed inspiration: she picked up the nearest edition of The Quibbler - in this case, the May edition from just a few months ago - and flicked open to a random page.</p>
<p>Lunar Cycles, read the headline, And How They Impact Your Magical Prowess.</p>
<p>That would do nicely, she thought, and scribbled down on the parchment: Luna Lovegood.</p>
<p>It felt right.</p>
<p>“Dad,” she called, “I’m a girl, please call me Luna.”</p>
<p>“Of course, dear, I always wanted a daughter,” he called back absently from another room.</p>
<p>And that was settled.</p>
<p>A few hours later, she got an owl back from the school.</p>
<p>Dear Luna, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home. Yours, Professor Dumbledore.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>People didn’t get it. They didn’t get her. The girls in the dormitory didn’t take her in the way she’d hoped, and the boys didn’t talk to her as much anymore, either. She found herself quite isolated from her Ravenclaw family, who had a hard time changing their minds once they thought they knew something. By the time she got to her first Transfiguration class of third year, she was feeling quite defeated indeed.</p>
<p>The last person to get a seat partner, as had been the case last year in any class with Gryffindors, was Ginny Weasley, who was most famous for having been possessed by Lord Voldemort and attacking Muggle-borns their first year. Everyone remained a little afraid of her, and certainly no one wanted to do magic with her. Unluckily for Luna, she had found herself in the position of an outcast in recent days as well.</p>
<p>“Paraxenos, how was your summer?” asked Ginny.</p>
<p>“Oh, it’s Luna now,” she said, as casually as she could manage.</p>
<p>“Luna? That’s a girl’s name.”</p>
<p>“I’m a girl.”</p>
<p>“I know that,” said Ginny quickly, quite embarrassed at the thought that she’d been mistaken for two years.</p>
<p>“Oh, don’t worry, I haven’t always been.”</p>
<p>Ginny furrowed her brow. “What are you talking about?”</p>
<p>“I used to think I was a boy. Now I don’t. It’s simple, really.”</p>
<p>Ginny stopped to think about this. “Luna’s a nice name.”</p>
<p>“Thanks, I got it out of-”</p>
<p>“The Quibbler?” asked Ginny.</p>
<p>“How’d you know?”</p>
<p>Ginny laughed. “You’re a funny girl, Luna.”</p>
<p>“You’re not nearly as evil as everyone says you are,” said Luna delightedly.</p>
<p>“Thanks,” Ginny sighed. “It’s been a year, you’d think they’d get it out of their systems.”</p>
<p>“It wasn’t even your fault.”</p>
<p>“I almost died. If it wasn’t for…” Ginny trailed off. “Do you like boys?”</p>
<p>“Huh?”</p>
<p>“I never have anyone to talk about boys with. I have six brothers.”</p>
<p>“I don’t have any siblings,” said Luna, not entirely sure where she stood on liking boys. Or girls. Or anyone. She hadn’t ever thought about it.</p>
<p>“We don’t have to talk about boys. We can talk about Quidditch, or homework, or the Triwizard Tournament - my brothers Fred and George are trying to enter, even though they’re sixteen, they’ve got this Aging Potion…”</p>
<p>Maybe a friendship with Ginny Weasley wasn’t the worst thing in the world right now.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Investigation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I don't know how to put this delicately," said Ginny, whose delicacy was, in general, not to be highly recommended, "but how far have you gone in this whole becoming-a-girl business?"</p>
<p>"I just am one," said Luna.</p>
<p>"Yes, I know, but have you changed your body?"</p>
<p>"No," she said, frowning. "Is that something you can do?"</p>
<p>"Haven't the slightest," said Ginny. "I was just wondering. Transfiguration magic is powerful. People do all sorts of things to their bodies."</p>
<p>Luna had often wished she were a Metamorphmagus, someone with the innate ability to change their appearance at will. She wanted it when she was little to dye her hair crazy colors and to turn her hands into convincing puppets to put on shows, but recently she'd had other ideas.</p>
<p>Ginny had the rather ingenious plan to go ask Madam Pomfrey - "after all, you can't be the first one" - and as Luna couldn't come up with a better objection than embarrassment, the two headed toward the hospital wing after class.</p>
<p>"Ah, well," said Madam Pomfrey, "St. Mungo's does offer a quick service that completely switches the biology of a witch or wizard who has found themselves in an unfavorable body."</p>
<p>Luna brightened.</p>
<p>"However," she hinged, "this is only offered to witches and wizards of age."</p>
<p>"What?" asked Ginny. "That's nonsense. Complete tosh."</p>
<p>"I'm afraid," said Madam Pomfrey, "that the underage witch or wizard can't do much in terms of altering physicality. If one were to stay in an altered body permanently before it's finished growing, there can be horrible side effects."</p>
<p>"More horrible than things already are? No offense, Luna."</p>
<p>"None taken," said Luna, who was quite in agreement.</p>
<p>"I'm sorry, Miss Lovegood. There's nothing I can do for you."</p>
<p>She at least had something to look forward to now. Less than four years and she'd be free.</p>
<p>"I still believe you're a girl," said Ginny on their way out. "Biology be damned."</p>
<p>"Thank you," said Luna.</p>
<p>"Besides, we can still totally fix you up."</p>
<p>"Fix me up?"</p>
<p>Ginny shook her head. "Come on, I've got someone to introduce to you."</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>"Butter mellow," Ginny recited confidently, looking down at the scribble she'd written on her hand.</p>
<p>"What, there's no riddle?" asked Luna.</p>
<p>"They make you answer a riddle?" asked Ginny. "No, we just have to know a password."</p>
<p>The Fat Lady gave a skeptical look to Luna's Ravenclaw tie.</p>
<p>"She's with me," said Ginny. Luna nodded.</p>
<p>The portrait swung open as the Fat Lady sighed, and they crawled through the opening into the Gryffindor common room.</p>
<p>"What exactly do you mean, fix me up?" asked Luna.</p>
<p>"Hey, Neville, come here."</p>
<p>A blond boy sitting in the corner looked up hazily from his fourth-year Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook, blinked a few times, then stood up and walked toward Ginny and Luna.</p>
<p>"Are you okay?"</p>
<p>"Moody's just got some odd ways of teaching, is all," said Neville shakily. "Who's your friend?"</p>
<p>"This is Luna Lovegood. She's a Ravenclaw." Without this added statement, Neville could have inferred her Ravenclaw status from her tie, but he would never have inferred that he ought to be calling her "she." For one, she had hair colored so light and cut so short she might have looked bald from a distance.</p>
<p>"Pleasure," said Neville, looking slightly puzzled.</p>
<p>"Neville is a valued friend," explained Ginny, "but he also knows Herbology at an OWL level, and that is what we need him for at this moment. Are you sure you're alright?" she asked again, noting his hands shaking.</p>
<p>"Yeah, I love plants," said Neville. "Could use a distraction."</p>
<p>"Is there a plant that helps with hair growth? Maybe you eat it or put it in a potion and it makes your hair grow really fast?"</p>
<p>"The Malliaux flower can be added to tea," said Neville. "A lot of older witches use it for its restorative properties, but it'll grow hair really- really quickly, but I've just remembered where it grows, and I'm regretting telling you anything."</p>
<p>"Where?" asked Luna.</p>
<p>"Under tall trees," he said defeatedly.</p>
<p>"The forest," said Ginny.</p>
<p>Neville buried his face in his hands. "No, you can't go out to the forest. I won't allow it."</p>
<p>"What are you, a prefect?" said Ginny. "Luna, what do you think?"</p>
<p>Luna had done a lot of odd things in her two years at Hogwarts, but none of them had technically been against school rules, and none of them had been as dangerous as entering the Forbidden Forest. However, her desire for long hair was pressing, and it seemed to be the best idea any of them had. "I'll go if both of you come with me. Neville to identify the plant, Ginny to scare off any predators."</p>
<p>"And you to make friends with the Dymaxions," teased Ginny.</p>
<p>"Do you mean Disprites? They're hard to come by, but I'll let you know if I find any."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Forest</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ginny didn't seem quite herself the next day.</p>
<p>"I can't figure out why he would put his name in... HOW he would put his name in... isn't he famous enough without Triwizard glory?"</p>
<p>"Who, Harry?" asked Luna. "I don't think he did that. I think that was powerful magic beyond what a fourth-year's capable of, to trick the Goblet of Fire."</p>
<p>"You don't know Harry the way I do," said Ginny protectively, covetously. "He's survived the Killing Curse, we don't know what else he's capable of."</p>
<p>"You don't think... you don't think he could win, do you?"</p>
<p>"Of course he will," said Neville, who had after all joined them on their venture into the Forbidden Forest. "He lucks into everything else. 'Oh, Neville, don't mind me, I'm sneaking off to fight Snape, who's actually working for You-Know-Who.' No, he wasn't. 'Oh, Neville, I'm going into the Chamber of Secrets.' He wouldn't have known a way out. 'Neville, you'll never believe what Hermione's been doing all school year.' No, but I'm sure he conveniently used it to get himself out of a scrape."</p>
<p>"What had Hermione been doing?" asked Ginny.</p>
<p>"Time travel," said Neville quietly. "Says she just used it to attend more classes. I don't believe it."</p>
<p>"If I had time travel," said Luna, "assuming I couldn't use it to change anything, I'd go back and tell my mom who I really am."</p>
<p>"What happened to your mom?" asked Ginny.</p>
<p>"She died a few years ago. She probably knew, really. Had a gift for Divination."</p>
<p>The forest, all at once, was quiet, and the trio realized they could not see out in any direction. It was trees all the way down.</p>
<p>"Let's look for the Malliaux and get out of here," said Neville.</p>
<p>"What's it look like?" asked Luna.</p>
<p>"Five pink petals around a white center. Long, thick stem."</p>
<p>The three kept their eyes to the ground, scanning for the flower along the bases of the trees. Luna didn't see what she was looking for, but stopping to pay attention gave her notice of a Dinglewhack colony that had collected beneath a particular ash tree. She would have to tell her dad about this -- oh, but could she tell her dad she'd been in the Forest?</p>
<p>"I can't imagine why this place is forbidden," said Luna. "It's so beautiful. You know they do detentions in here?"</p>
<p>Suddenly, the three of them heard an earth-shattering roar above them, the likes of which none of them had ever heard before.</p>
<p>"Run," said Luna, and the three of them took off toward the light, the nearest clearing being about fifty yards away.</p>
<p>"I'm not a Magical Creatures guy," shouted Neville over the pace of their feet and the air leaving his lungs, "but if it roars like that and it flies, it can't be good."</p>
<p>They arrived at the clearing.</p>
<p>"Now what?" asked Ginny.</p>
<p>"We signal for help," said Luna.</p>
<p>"You're insane," said Neville. "We'll get detention or worse."</p>
<p>"That's better than dying to a DRAGON!" She screamed this last word as the massive green monstrosity landed right in front of them. It took a deep breath in and blew fire out, missing the three of them by inches.</p>
<p>Luna stuck her wand straight into the air and shouted "Auxilio!" A beacon of light shot out from her wand and reached into the sky. "They'll be able to see that from the school. I've been on wilderness survival trainings since I was young."</p>
<p>"Now what?" asked Neville.</p>
<p>"We look for the flower," said Ginny.</p>
<p>"What?" said Luna and Neville in disbelief.</p>
<p>"It was important enough to come out here, it's important enough to fight a dragon for. Now look."</p>
<p>Luna tried to cast her periphery around the bases of nearby trees, wand at the ready in case the dragon attacked. It looked at her with its beady eyes, glaring deep and dark into Luna's soul, and breathed another bolt of fire.</p>
<p>"Aguamenti!" she yelled, and a violent burst of water extended from her wand into the dragon's mouth, neutralizing the flame.</p>
<p>The dragon scowled, paying no notice to the thirteen-year-old girl who had climbed on its back.</p>
<p>"What are you doing?" shouted Luna.</p>
<p>"Getting a better view!" Ginny yelled back. In this moment, Luna felt a pang of something more for Ginny, like she was extra-important for some reason, more important than anybody.</p>
<p>The dragon turned to Neville, who looked positively petrified. "What do I do?"</p>
<p>"Keep it distracted," said Luna.</p>
<p>Neville decided the best way to do this was to run around the clearing in a circle, getting the dragon to spin along with him, producing a circle of flame and a very disoriented Ginny.</p>
<p>"Stop running," said Ginny, and when he did, and her eyes focused again, she saw it. The Malliaux. "There!"</p>
<p>She pointed, and Luna ran after and grabbed it. As Ginny tried to dismount the dragon, it finally took notice of her and violently shook its tail - for just a moment, and then it lay down and became pacified, as if under a spell.</p>
<p>A ginger man of about twenty had come and calmed the dragon. His air of confidence made him appear far more qualified to be dealing with the creatures than three children who got lost in the woods.</p>
<p>"Charlie, what're you doing out here?" asked Ginny.</p>
<p>"Rescuing you lot from dragons, I suppose," Charlie Weasley said in a gruff voice.</p>
<p>"It's a good time to see you," she said, finally climbing off the dragon's back.</p>
<p>"Listen, I won't tell Dumbledore you were out here if you promise not to tell a soul I've got dragons out here. It's official business, but it's secret."</p>
<p>Luna immediately put together, and erroneously assumed that Neville and Ginny did as well, that this must be Triwizard business. She nodded. "We won't."</p>
<p>And so the three headed back through the forest the way they came, in silent agreement that they were all friends now, in it for the long haul. If they took on a dragon together, they could do anything.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Makeup</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Luna was getting all sorts of attention on her new hair, which had grown down to her shoulders in the span of a weekend. Some of the attention was negative, and much of it was skeptical. The teachers, in particular, didn't believe that Luna's internal magic had corrected her hair growth to match her identity. The Malliaux tea in the morning combined with the tea she had to drink for Divination and the standard cup she had with lunch made her quite jittery by Transfiguration.</p>
<p>"You look shaky," said Ginny.</p>
<p>"Don't worry about it," said Luna. "I'm fine. Better than ever."</p>
<p>"Your hair looks great. Did you put some Sleakeazy's in it?"</p>
<p>Luna blushed. "Yeah, I wanted it to be nice."</p>
<p>"Look," said Ginny, pulling out little wands and compacts from her purse. "Hermione gave me this Muggle makeup. I've color-shifted it to your skin tone."</p>
<p>"You know my skin tone?"</p>
<p>"Sure, it's a little darker than mine, a little lighter than Hermione's. No problem."</p>
<p>Luna felt that there was room for error there, but didn't question it. Ginny knew what she was doing, in general, or if she didn't, she knew how to act like she did. True Gryffindors like Ginny were queens of bullshitting their way through life.</p>
<p>Back in the common room, the two of them sorted through piles of makeup.</p>
<p>"This is called eyeshadow," said Ginny, "and you can use whatever colors you want. It doesn't have to match your skin. You can be expressive."</p>
<p>Luna lit up at the idea of self-expression. She thrived on opportunities to be uniquely herself and to demonstrate that to others. She took the wand and applied a layer of Ravenclaw blue to both eyes, uneven and messy but there nonetheless.</p>
<p>"Here, this is lip gloss. Muggle girls wear it to make their lips shiny. Hermione hasn't used this yet, so you don't have to worry about cooties or whatever."</p>
<p>Luna applied a thin layer of gloss to her lips and smacked them together for more even coverage.</p>
<p>Her makeup was a mess, as she looked in the mirror at the finished product. This was what she got for having shaky hands. The contouring was all off, the foundation cakey and not quite her color after all, and the eyeliner didn't stay on the edges of her eyes so much as meander around her eyelids. She didn't look any more like a girl than she had before, at least not a good one. She felt fake. She felt like this had been an elaborate joke and she was supposed to feel more hopeless than ever.</p>
<p>"Merlin, Luna," said Ginny. "You look… beautiful."</p>
<p>Luna smiled, because no one had ever called her beautiful before. "You really think so?"</p>
<p>"I'd volunteer to go next, but I just can't deal with that much stuff on my face. I'd try to rub it off. But you- you look great. Wow."</p>
<p>"You do, too," said Luna, and immediately regretted it.</p>
<p>"Thanks," laughed Ginny. "It's the windswept broomstick look."</p>
<p>"Is Quidditch even going on this year?"</p>
<p>"Not officially," said Ginny, "but I still ride around the pitch to clear my head. No one's stopped me yet."</p>
<p>"Could I come with you sometime?" asked Luna. She hadn't been on a broomstick since first-year flying lessons, and there was hardly a chance she could keep up with Ginny, but any opportunity to spend time with Ginny was a good one.</p>
<p>"Wanna put that makeup through physical testing? Hey, Neville!" she called across the common room. "Luna and I are going flying, do you wanna-"</p>
<p>"Noooope," came the resounding response. "Last time I played Quidditch, I ended up in the hospital wing."</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>The pitch was empty, save the two girls. Luna stood astride Fred's Comet Two-Sixty, while Ginny had the newest model of Cleansweep handed down to her from Charlie.</p>
<p>"Why'd you give me the faster broom?" said Luna.</p>
<p>"You'll need it," said Ginny, kicking off and leaving Luna behind.</p>
<p>Luna watched helplessly from the ground as Ginny raced around the pitch, gliding and flipping and taking all sorts of maneuvers Luna daren't dream of. She came back to a stop. "What's wrong?"</p>
<p>"I can never get off the ground with these things."</p>
<p>"I don't think this thing'll break," said Ginny, patting the center of her broom confidently. "Yeah, Viktor Krum definitely weighs more than the two of us put together."</p>
<p>"Put together?" said Luna.</p>
<p>"Here, stand over the broom," said Ginny. "Yes, front to back with me, my hair doesn't bite. I do, but only under certain circumstances, and this isn't one of them."</p>
<p>Luna stood with her front pressed into Ginny's back, straddling the Cleansweep.</p>
<p>"You're gonna want to hold on," said Ginny, so Luna put her arms around her and held tight.</p>
<p>Slowly, the broom lifted the two girls off the ground. Luna struggled to keep her balance. There were other factors at play here.</p>
<p>"It gets easier once you're moving. Oh, take off that necklace, it'll choke you."</p>
<p>Luna looked down at her bottlecap necklace, a gift from her father, and took it off, discarding it on the nearby ground.</p>
<p>Ginny picked up speed, and Luna found it easier to balance, though she held just as tight to Ginny - you know, in case she took a corner too quickly, or tried to do a flip, or something else Luna couldn't conceive of.</p>
<p>But she never did; Ginny took it easy on Luna, just simple laps around the pitch, weaving in and out of the hoops. Luna found herself having quite a good time, and being this close to Ginny gave her butterflies in her stomach.</p>
<p>"Miss Weasley! Miss Lovegood! Get down here immediately!"</p>
<p>The voice of Professor McGonagall rang out, magically amplified so they couldn't mishear.</p>
<p>The two skidded to a stop inches from the professor.</p>
<p>"First of all," said McGonagall, "the Quidditch pitch is closed. It's needed to set up the First Task. That's why I'm out here. Second, and more importantly, only one person should be on a broom at a time. That's basic broom safety. Miss Lovegood, Miss Weasley, you were both raised in wizarding households, surely you should know this."</p>
<p>"Luna doesn't know how to fly, Professor, I thought maybe-"</p>
<p>"You thought wrong," said Professor McGonagall. "This display was dangerous and inconsiderate. I have no choice but to take ten points from Gryffindor AND Ravenclaw."</p>
<p>"But no detention?" asked Ginny hopefully.</p>
<p>"No, you'll be receiving detention. Professor Snape is having the fourth-years make Sticking Solution tomorrow and will certainly need help removing spills from the tabletops."</p>
<p>Ginny groaned. "I've never had a detention with Snape."</p>
<p>"I've never had a detention at all," said Luna. "This shall be a new experience for both of us."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Detention</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Scrapers in hand, Ginny and Luna got to work on a room covered in Sticking Solution.</p><p>"Have you ever had chewing gum?" asked Ginny.</p><p>Luna shook her head no, wrestling with a particularly sticky patch.</p><p>"According to Hermione, Muggles have this Sticking Solution that they chew and then put on desks on purpose."</p><p>"You sure have a lot of friends for someone with no friends," said Luna.</p><p>"No friends in my year," Ginny corrected. "I've learned to hang around with the other outcasts. Usually they're more interesting anyway. No offense."</p><p>"No, I'd call myself an outcast, too," said Luna sadly. "They've started calling me Loony."</p><p>"That's better than the old name, right? Are they calling you the right pronouns?"</p><p>"Yeah, but it seems like a joke when they do it, like it's a silly game they're being forced to play. But Dad's publishing an article about trans people in this month's Quibbler, so that should calm them down."</p><p>Ginny paused, as if she wasn't sure that was entirely true. "You should hear some of the names I get called. Medusa's a big one."</p><p>Luna had, in the past, called Ginny by this particular name behind her back, but was too embarrassed and ashamed now to admit it. "That's terrible."</p><p>"It's fitting. After a while of being blamed for all this, it starts to sink in that it is, a little bit, my fault. I trusted the diary. I was the one who went out and attacked those people. I wrote the hate messages in blood on the walls. And Hermione doesn't like to admit it, but it's my fault those people were turned to stone."</p><p>"Yes, but clearly you didn't mean to," said Luna. "You were possessed. You couldn't have seen it coming."</p><p>"If I'd had just an ounce more common sense."</p><p>"You were eleven."</p><p>"Twelve, by the end, and I'm thirteen now, so what does that say?"</p><p>"You've learned not to tell a new friend about your obsession with Harry Potter?"</p><p>Ginny easily scraped up a pile shaped like a cauldron had overflowed. "I'm not obsessed with Harry Potter. Not like I used to be. It was bad at the beginning of second year, but now I'm pretty much over it."</p><p>"Have you gotten to know him as a person and now you treat him like one?"</p><p>"No," said Ginny. "We still never talk. I think he just sees me as Ron's little sister. But I just see him as the guy who saved my life, so it all works out."</p><p>---</p><p>"You're sure you're over Harry?" asked Luna, sitting next to Ginny and Neville at the First Task.</p><p>"Yeah, totally," said Ginny, who was unnecessarily decked out in Gryffindor gear.</p><p>"And lastly," said the announcer, "fighting the Hungarian Horntail… Harry Potter!"</p><p>"Now, watch, he's gonna do something stupid and lucky to get out of this," said Neville.</p><p>"You mean like we did?" said Ginny. "I bet he does something clever. He's a champion for a reason."</p><p>"A Galleon on it?" said Neville.</p><p>"You're on," said Ginny.</p><p>Luna wasn't sure where she stood, but she knew Ginny had more faith in Harry than she ought to. From all she'd heard, Harry Potter's life was just a string of increasingly unlikely coincidences working out in his favor.</p><p>"Accio Firebolt!"</p><p>"Dammit," said Neville and fished for a Galleon as Ginny grinned.</p><p>"What's Accio do?" asked Luna.</p><p>"His Firebolt's going to come flying from wherever it is right into his hand," explained Neville, "then he'll Quidditch his way around the dragon."</p><p>"Krum should've done that," said Luna. "He's a better Seeker."</p><p>"Have you seen Harry play Quidditch?" asked Ginny.</p><p>"He can't always beat Cho Chang," said Luna. "He might have been good enough to make the team year one, but has he gotten better?"</p><p>"He tried to eat the Snitch his first game," said Neville, "so I'd say so."</p><p>The Firebolt came flying, and Harry was off.</p><p>"We should take notes for the next time we fight a dragon," said Ginny.</p><p>"We are never fighting a dragon again," said Neville.</p><p>Ginny watched intently. Luna watched Ginny intently. Was she really over Harry? If so, why was she still such a big fan? If not, was she into Luna? Could she be into Luna? They'd been spending a lot of time together. Did Ginny like girls? Did Ginny even see Luna as a girl? That last one was ridiculous, of course she did.</p><p>"I promise I'm over him," she said, "but holy hell, look at the way he flips - and he's got the egg!" Ginny pulled Luna into a tight hug. "OhMerlinohMerlin he did it he's got it he survived!"</p><p>"'Course he survived," said Neville. "Death was never an option."</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Hogsmeade</h2></a>
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    <p>With the first Hogsmeade trip coming up, Neville decided to stay in and do some light reading. Ginny and Luna had both gotten bad Herbology-related tea leaf readings in their last Divination class, so Neville had taken it as sort of a sign.</p>
<p>Luna was determined to use this absence to her advantage. A lot of people took dates to Hogsmeade, after all.</p>
<p>They sat down at the Hog's Head and ordered two hot chocolates, the weather being just nippy enough for the first good ones of the season.</p>
<p>"You seem happy today, Luna," said Ginny.</p>
<p>"I am," she said innocently. "I get to spend the day in Hogsmeade with my dear friend Ginny."</p>
<p>"I haven't even told you the exciting news yet."</p>
<p>"What news?"</p>
<p>"Neville has asked me to the Yule Ball, and I obviously told him I'd only go if you could go."</p>
<p>"That was... nice of you," said Luna.</p>
<p>"So we hatched a plan. You know my brothers Fred and George?"</p>
<p>"Who doesn't?" said Luna.</p>
<p>"Well, they're both taking the same girl. Angelina Johnson. They both like her and they're trying to pull off this poly relationship where they're both dating her. As their sister, I try not to think about it. Point is, one of them's free to invite another girl, under the agreement that he won't actually spend any time with her. So," Ginny concluded, "would you like to go to the Yule Ball with my brother but actually with me?"</p>
<p>"Like a date?"</p>
<p>"It's like you're not listening. You don't have to date my brothers, they've got Angelina."</p>
<p>"No, you specifically said 'with me,' and not 'with me and Neville.' You can't expect a Ravenclaw not to pick up on that."</p>
<p>"Well, yeah. I kind of thought we had something here." Ginny looked suddenly mortified. "Don't we? No, look, I'll take it all back if we don't. You don't have to go to the Yule Ball with me-"</p>
<p>"Of course I will," said Luna. "Of course we have something. I just didn't realize you felt it, too."</p>
<p>"Of course I do," said Ginny.</p>
<p>"Well, then, that's settled," said Luna.</p>
<p>"What's settled?"</p>
<p>"Well, we're girlfriends, aren't we?"</p>
<p>"I feel like you're skipping some formalities," said Ginny.</p>
<p>"Do I seem formal to you?" asked Luna, her wand tucked behind her ear, her hair waving in every which way.</p>
<p>"I think we should go on one date before we call ourselves girlfriends."</p>
<p>"Then let's go," said Luna, landing her hand squarely in Ginny's and tugging her away from her hot cocoa.</p>
<p>"I haven't paid for that," said Ginny, and she fished a few Sickles out of her pocket with her free hand.</p>
<p>"So how do you think you identify?" asked Luna, walking the streets of Hogsmeade with Ginny as her date.</p>
<p>"Probably bisexual," said Ginny, "but I don't believe in locking yourself into labels."</p>
<p>"I'm a female lesbian and I like women," said Luna, and Ginny could get behind this confidence.</p>
<p>"Shame we can't talk about boys, then," said Ginny.</p>
<p>"Oh, sure we can. I like Neville quite a lot."</p>
<p>"I like Neville quite a lot, too," said Ginny, "but that's not at all what I mean when I say I like you quite a lot."</p>
<p>"I also apparently like the twins, for sneaking me into the Yule Ball."</p>
<p>"It'll likely be George," said Ginny. "He tends to get the short end of the stick, being the younger one."</p>
<p>"You must really get it, being the youngest of all of them."</p>
<p>"Nah, Ron gets it. I'm the girl, I'm special."</p>
<p>"Girls are special," said Luna dreamily.</p>
<p>Ginny laughed. "Yes, you are."</p>
<p>Luna couldn't believe her luck.</p>
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